The real demon is success-the anxieties engendered by this quest are relentless, degrading, corroding. What is worse, there is no end to this escalation of desire.

Surely the hold of great music on the listener is precisely this: that the listener is made whole; and at the same time part of an image of infinite grace and grandeur which is creation.

The New York voice reflects its diversity, its foreignness, and, inevitably, the sense of superiority New Yorkers feel or come to feel. It says, without saying, We Know.

Is there no end to this escalation of desire?

All great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction.

There is nothing harder to come by than detachment and solitude; and nothing more important.

The process of maturing is an art to be learned, an effort to be sustained.